The Londoner

Thu Sep 4, 2008 5:44am IST By Alistair Scrutton SRINAGAR (Reuters) - The protesters organise with Facebook, YouTube as well as via messages from local mosques. They eschew violence, but are seething with anger. They are Kashmir's new generation of radicalised separatists who are proving a huge challenge to New Delhi by spurring the biggest demonstrations against India in two decades. "The older generation is tired." said Zaffar, a 23 year-old student in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, in a street under curfew where dozens of heavily armed police patrolled. "Our generation has understood what the problem is." Zaffar was surrounded by similar youths, each recounting a police beating or an abuse at the hands of troops. With text messages blocked by the government and many mobiles mysteriously cut, they often relied on the Internet to communicate. Protests by hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris in the last month highlight how a younger generation who know lit

Pakistan has condemned an alleged raid by foreign troops based in Afghanistan which officials say killed at least 15 villagers in a north-west tribal area. The South Waziristan raid would be the first ever ground assault into Pakistan by foreign forces from Afghanistan. Pakistan says the raid was a violation of its sovereignty. On Thursday a US missile killed at least five people in nearby North Waziristan, officials say. US-led and Nato forces have said they have no reports of any troop incursion. But off the record, US military sources confirm that US commandoes carried out Wednesday's raid against a suspected al-Qaeda target - and say it could signal a tougher approach to cross-border militancy. Thursday's attack occurred in the village of Mohammad Khel near Miranshah in North Waziristan, local officials said. A witness told Reuters news agency that a pilotless US drone had fired at least three missiles at a house where militants were hiding. 'No high-value target' P

The mosque, which will hold up to 2,000 people, will be one of the largest in Europe and is to feature minarets 180 feet high, a third as tall as the nearby cathedral. Building work was due to get underway last autumn despite a vigorous protest movement, which has featured both Jewish intellectuals and the political far-right. Some reports suggested the city's council only agreed to the project after designers agreed to trim down the size of the mosque's minarets. But Miriam Berndt, from the architect's cabinet behind the project said that nothing had changed. "The minarets will remain as tall as planned, and this will be one of Germany's biggest mosques," she said. "We will start building work this winter and will be finished in a year or two." Immigration and integration are highly sensitive topics in Germany, which is home to more than three million Muslims, the vast majority of Turkish origin. But while other mosque projects, such as the one to b

SKOPJE -- Residents of Macedonian villages bordering Kosovo say they are "pleased with the demarcation process". Stone border markers were placed at critical points near the villages of Tanuševci and Debalde three days ago. Debalde residents told the media that parts of their property were being returned to what it was like “before the collapse of Yugoslavia.” “I am no expert in this field, but I believe that this is good and we are pleased. I can’t tell by what plan and how the border lines will be defined,” one resident from Debalde who lives on the territory of Kosovo told the media. Several meters away, his neighbor from the Macedonian village of Tanuševci was also pleased, stating that “everything is going according to the plan of [UN special envoy] Martti Ahtisaari.” This region was problematic several years ago because citizens believed that the border had not been demarcated correctly. The demarcation is now being carried out under the supervision of an international

President of the Republic of Albania, Bamir Topi, met on Wednesday with a group of Kosovar students who are attending a specialization course at the Albanian Diplomatic Academy. President Topi congratulated the young Kosovars for the task citing the importance of education and professional political and diplomatic preparation during the important phase of further recognitions for the independence of Kosovo. President of Albania discussed with the newest generation of Kosovar diplomats regarding the latest achievements as a new state in the world political map and about the nomination of Kosovo's first ten ambassadors, which will present it in international circles. Kosovar representatives on the other hand thanked President Topi for the dedication of Albania and its intuitions in the sensibilization of the international opinion regarding the successful solution of the Kosovo case which was capped with the announcement of independence by the most important international porters. Kos

By Jean-Arnault Dérens During the Balkans war there was much talk of foreign mujahideen coming to fight in Bosnia-Herzegovina; and a few tiny “emirates” survived in remote areas until the end of the 1990s (1). Although the events of 9/11 mostly ended this, a few radical organisations remain active and there are still some militant foreign Islamists living in Bosnia. The main problem facing the authorities in Sarajevo is that of foreign volunteers who were rewarded for their war service with Bosnian citizenship. Since some turned up in Guantanamo Bay, there has been strong international pressure to review these naturalisations. But the Islamist influx never really established itself, even if the visibility and social importance of Islam have increased: Bosniacs are now just over 50% of the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina, compared with 43.5% before the war. The head of the Muslim community is the energetic Grand Mufti, Mustafa Effendi Ceric. He has secured the return of property held i

The young can’t be bothered to vote in elections, the old are destitute and only the professional politicians with profitable business connections are a going concern in Bosnia. There’s peace, but not much life for most citizens By Jean-Arnault Dérens A few days before Bosnia-Herzegovina’s last general election, on 1 October 2006, a handful of activists from an obscure group from the town of Kakanj, in central Bosnia, gathered in Sarajevo. Watched by astonished passers-by, they threw paint bombs at the façade of the state presidency before being hustled away by police. This despairing gesture in protest against the country’s political paralysis aroused sympathy in the city’s democratic circles. But several demonstrations soon after against the brutality of the police reaction attracted only a few hundred people. The democrats have every reason to be angry. The brutal murder of a teenage boy on a tram earlier this year led to protests about local politicians’ incompetence and refusal to